BACKGROUND OF THE GAME DESIGN
Much of the philosophy of Rain City is spelled out in the introduction to "A Brief History of Rain City" and in my not-quite-appropriately named "Resident's FAQ," which can be found by clicking on the What's New sign in the outside panorama view in the game itself. Let me briefly reiterate here that S.P.I.T.E. started out to be an episodic mystery game, and transmogrified into a role-playing game. Unforunately, few of the players have any experience with RPG's, as the site was designed to attract mystery/puzzle game fans. Also, ever since June of 1999, the game has been predominately occupied by teens and pre-teens, despite the subject matter and themes being (tongue-in-cheek) adult. This has led to some growing pains for Rain City. Coupled with this has been the fact that S.P.I.T.E. was originally sponsored/carried by WON.net, who has since dropped the game. This means that the developers at General Rubric (nee EPG Media) have no paid time to invest in the site, thus further slowing its development.
HOWEVER.......Kimara Sajn, one of the developers of the award-winning game The Cypher and primary engineer on S.P.I.T.E. has a deep, fond place in his heart for the game, and devotes every ounce of energy and every second of time he can to furthering its development. When EPG/GR "formalized" the decision to switch the game from an monthly episodic format (which was designed to last 8-12 months) to an RPG format, it relieved them of certain duties, and placed other duties upon them. Almost lost now is the search for Bert Rudall. In fact, the introduction to the game seems to have vanished into a cyberanomaly. Gone also are the weekly (then monthly, then bi-monthly) updates of the various clues (popups) around Rain City. The last clue updates were provided in July, 1999. On the other hand, Kimara (AKA Baby C, District Attorney of Cloud County) has spent what time he can enhancing the "toys" of Rain City (hereafter referred to as RC). For instance, each ocupation now has much more widespread abilities than originaly provided for. Detectives can actually catch criminals. Spies can actually spy. Lawyers can actually defend suspects. And reporters can actualy get their stories printed in S.P.I.T.E. (the newspaper). Kimara has also added the ability for players to "pay" each other by transfering money, access to the infamous hamster races, and actually "developed" the Bloodhound NT Pryware, the "McGuffin" of the game's original design.
Plot development was further hampered when EPG's "head" writer, Paul Greggut, left the company in late 1999. It seemed as if the search for Bert Rudall and the quest to get the goods on Alan Paulson might have been gone for good. However, S.P.I.T.E.'s players have proven themselves resourceful enough to develop their own plots, many of which actually further the "original" story's aims. Working in conjunction with and under the loose direction of Kim, players have added a wealth of "history" to the game, much of which is chronicled elsewhere on this site. It was a player (Beachgal) who designed the map you see on the What's New sign, incorporating all the addresses given in the game's original images and references AND the buildings and locales dreamed up and accepted as real by the player constituency. Other players have contributed to the story of Bert, Paulson, Tonebasher, and the Diskette in their own fashion. S.P.I.T.E. has been a remarkable success as an RPG despite the fact the only Kim and a couple of the regular players even KNEW what an RPG was when EPG made the decision to change the game's format.